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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 5th, 2023

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  • Again. I’m going to stipulate that I do understand that the site owners have to deal with the fallout of that, in the event that they are private citizens and not business entities.

    Section 230 in the US gives certain immunity in regards to content that is posted for social media platforms.

    Provides immunity to online platforms from civil liability based on third-party content and for the removal of content in certain circumstances. <<

    Meaning you can’t be held civilly liable for the actions of your users if you run a social media platform as a business. It specifically doesn’t consider social media to be a publisher and therefore not subject to the same legal restrictions as a publisher would be.

    But, if the business is not US based, even if the majority of its users are American, it may or may not be decided that such an entity is subject to it (or that even if that business is subject to the laws of its locality, the US can and often has considered that immunity to hold which was not the intention (it was not intended to be used for global immunity)).

    So if we flip that around, and take into consideration the natural assumptions of most users who may or may not be from the locality in question, they 1. Do not give any thought whatsoever to the owner of the social media platforms they use, and 2. Assume that any such legal action taken as a result of their personal statements or actions will only be considered in their own locality. This is human nature. I’m not defending it.

    This thread and the original post are about adding clarity for users, moderators and admins of this instance. If clarity is the goal, users should be made aware of the locality under which the platform legally falls. Since we also know the average user is unlikely to have read the complete TOS, we know that having that information there at the very bottom and nowhere else means most users will not ever come across it.

    Now, can we stop assuming this is just Americans messing it up for the rest, and leave the mentality behind and focus on the assumptions of anyone who might sign up here (from any country) that is not the locality of where the website is hosted or where it’s owners reside?

    Nobody is asking anyone to take any risks here. I’m literally saying that the problem is that people make natural assumptions that most people are prone to, and as a result, a better way to inform them could potentially be implemented. I’m not even arguing that the owners don’t get to make the rules. I’m not sure where you got that from. That’s why I asked (not demanded).

    If a mod (from say South American or Zimbabwe) was operating under the laws in their country and banned someone for content that they felt was against the law, but it was not against the law in the locality of the site or the offender, would that mod be in the right? There’s at least one comment I’ve seen on this post from a mod who felt a comment not in a community they moderate was breaking the rules and they admit their initial reaction was to ban the person before they realized that they are not the entity that should be undertaking that duty.

    If clarity is important, maybe this should be considered.


  • It’s about what I would or could use it for that I wouldn’t use a phone for. I don’t want a giant phone. I don’t really enjoy watching videos/movies on a phone. For home control I don’t need anything but wifi and maybe Bluetooth and I’m not interested in paying smartphone prices for the privilege. Same thing for viewing weather or schedules at a glance. Having that functionality to check on a smart phone is fine. Useful. Having it on a tablet where I can glance at it while getting dressed is better. And the speakers are generally better with better battery life (more space for a bigger battery) on a tablet. If you don’t have the use case for a piece of tech, of course it doesn’t make sense.



  • But my initial comment was the one you took umbridge to. And that original comment involved it being confusing for new users. So regardless of whether there were alternatives at the time I signed up or not, and regardless of whether people will move or would choose another instance if they knew, the point that it is confusing still stands and you haven’t really successfully argued that it’s not confusing.

    Also, there are other fediverse projects besides Lemmy. Perhaps I would have gone to one of those before coming to Lemmy.

    If you don’t think that people naturally assume that their Internet usage will be subject to their local laws, you’re missing the point entirely. People don’t think that using the internet and making statements that are legal where they live will get them in trouble with law enforcement entities the world over and they definitely don’t think that they will get other people in trouble with local authorities in some other country. They don’t think about this at all. There is an inherent assumption being made and it’s not that the website itself is American or German or Chinese. It’s that they will be more likely to make the assumption that their conduct will be viewed through the lens they are familiar with.

    If the intention is clarity then more clarity up front is always a plus.



  • I learned all the states at a 4th grader. Perhaps earlier even. I generally believe this is not a case of people not being taught, but a case of people not paying attention or otherwise info-dumping information they don’t think they need.

    There was a point when i was in the military where I could literally write in the names of every country in the world on a blank map. It’s been years since I had to do that and I wouldn’t be able to do it now.


  • I’m going to say something that I just want people to think about.

    Part of the allure of TV and video games is the idea that they are something you can do after working 8-12 hours a day that doesn’t ask anything of you. You can just sit and go through the motions. There is nothing being required. No deadlines. No bills. No stress. Not even attention if you don’t want to.

    It’s something of a detox from a world that is always trying to extract productivity from you.

    Because that is the case and because we have let the world creep in on any and all personal time we have to the point that we are afraid to not always be connected. While always being connected has a lot of positives (family always being just a phone call away, friends having an avenue to interact etc), there are obvious detriments as well.

    At the same time we have moved to a significantly digital age where there’s not anything to do outside that doesn’t cost money in some way. Transportation, venue, food, drinks, parking etc.

    I think what’s happening is that due to these and other factors, adults and kids don’t have the headspace to do more than veg out sometimes and the times when I see people doing that are while they’re waiting around or on break or when they get home from work or school.

    The short form video is the kind of thing that allows you to veg out to some extent. It also offers the chance to feel like you’re being interacted with (humans showing you something they think is neat or interesting or funny or stupid).

    We make the mistake of assuming that everything we do has to be if some substance. I don’t think that’s necessary. I think it’s healthy to give your brain a time and place free from the demands of everyday life. We discourage daydreaming or wandering off in our thoughts. We discourage a lot of healthy brain downtime actions.

    The corporate aspect of it is obviously not good. But when you realize we are more productive than we have ever been as a species, spending more hours working, and going to school than we do in leisure, I don’t think it’s necessarily terrible that we take a break from that when and where we can.


  • The peaceful protest has a purpose. It is the purpose of due diligence. It is to show an escalation. A point at which other avenues were tried and ignored leaving one with no choice but to try others that are more militant. You try all the avenues. And leave the last resort as a last resort. But historically we know that more often than not real change happens when there is either the threat of violence or the actuality of violence.

    People as a whole don’t seem to be invested until it impacts them. It’s hard to impact people enough with peaceful protest to change their minds. That’s why blocking highways or major thoroughfares were threatened with violence. Because the point of protest is twofold. It is to educate. But more importantly it is to inconvenience people. Because without the inconvenience, they do not get invested.


  • But if they move to another instance, then the LW rules don’t apply to them anymore, so no need to change the sign up page?<<

    You said it yourself. Inertia is a thing. Some people move on. Some people don’t and probably won’t.

    Clarity is important if we’re talking about enforcing a TOS to comply with the law. Especially when the average Lemmy instance owner doesn’t just have a team of lawyers on retainer.

    The point I’m making though is a lot of people (perhaps myself included) wouldn’t have come to lemmy.world at all if they had known that they’d be beholden to laws they had never even heard of and aren’t normally subject to in their daily lives.

    I don’t think what I’m suggesting (I’m not pushing to enact the stuff I suggested) is all that unreasonable. But of course it’s not up to me, and probably not even up to the majority of Lemmy.world users.

    But the .world part of the name is something of a misnomer if you consider how confusing it may be to new users, especially if this is their first foray into the fediverse.

    I haven’t decided it’s worth the time to vet another instance to move to and transfer everything I have set up over to that new instance.

    Though this wasn’t handled the way I would have personally handled it, I’m largely not too bothered about the changes because I’m unlikely to ever run afoul of them.

    Even though I absolutely believe that karma is a thing, and you get out of the world what you put into it, at the end of the day I’m not on Lemmy (or any other platforms) to advocate for the death of people. Probably the closest I have ever gotten is saying something like “eat the rich” and that’s meant to be taken as having a healthy dose of sarcasm.


  • Don’t skip the bit about how many people often do not read the TOS or EULA. That’s important to what I am saying. I was literally told when asking about Lemmy instances that lemmy.world was THE recommendation for instances specifically because it was so large and active as a result. Just because there are other instances where the users are local to the locale of the instance doesn’t necessarily undermine my point since what we’re talking about is lemmy.world specifically.

    And anything with a .uk or similar is more likely to be identified at first glance as being for that locale which means more of the users would naturally gravitate towards it. Like it or not lemmy.world is a jumping off point for lots of users, plenty of whom move on to other instances (some of which may be an instance more local to them).


  • That’s at pretty much the very bottom of the TOS and given the number of people who skim or don’t even read TOS and EULA’s (and the number of jurisdictions that have ruled they aren’t a binding agreement), I’d say something directly on the sign up page is warranted. Additionally this information is not anywhere that I can find on any sidebar or about section.

    People don’t often “look” for instances specific to their locale when joining Lemmy. That’s a lot of the reason this instance is so large. I would wager that most people who are users of this instance do not know that this instance is based in Scandinavia (and Germany). I bet most of them are also unfamiliar with the laws and regulations of those countries as well.


  • I don’t necessarily think that the wording helps in the case of marijuana legalisation. For instance, I can absolutely argue that an instance of jury nullification in the case of a marijuana user or dealer in a state where the accused was charged before legalisation took effect but who is not being offered clemency under the new law is justified. People should be able to voice opinions. And the wording they used isn’t better for this purpose given the hypothetical I just posed or other hypotheticals I could give.




  • In the TOS, I would appreciate it if you would make it clear to users signing up for Lemmy.world which legal jurisdiction the site at large falls under and that the content here must abide by because this is not made clear on the sign up page or in the TOS (it should be front and center, not several scrolls down the page, at the bottom, because it is the basis for everything else in the TOS). At the time of this comment this information also isn’t listed on any sidebar, or about page for the site itself or the Lemmy.world community/sign up pages so far as I have been able to tell.

    The TOS is a legal document and as such, changes should also probably be dated to reflect to existing users what has changed or been updated since their initial sign up and the fact that it is less likely for them to review the TOS at a later date unless you notify them (by email or similar) or they run afoul of the document. This adds important context both for the users and for the legal jurisdiction.

    This is also important for moderators who may or may not live or otherwise be subject to the laws of the legal jurisdiction of the site, because naturally moderators will default to and be swayed by what is legal (or illegal) in the jurisdiction where they operate, and will more than likely also not be well acquainted with the laws and regulations outside of where they operate.



  • I have a question. Why not just specifically forbid talk involving deliberate jury nullification for the purposes of essentially helping to plan or otherwise be an accessory to a crime? Or just leave it as enacting/planning/otherwise officially endorsing criminal activity is prohibited under TOS and clarify that this type of talk about deliberately planning jury nullification for crimes committed is against TOS under this rule. That’s simple enough and wouldn’t have taken such a meandering and lengthy post. Additionally, the statement about what jurisdiction and laws this instance is subject to can be added to the TOS and the laws clarified with links to official documentation accordingly. This post is a mess.